It takes a very talented hand to make a movie that covers two different time periods. The storytelling needs balance or the focus falls off, and the casting has to be perfect so the characters come across like the same parts of one whole.

Director John Madden got "The Debt" half right.

"The Debt," which tells the story of three Mossad secret agents dispatched to East Berlin in 1966 to capture a Nazi war criminal and the lie the agents have lived with for more than 30 years, leans more toward the mission and less toward the aftermath. It's a strategic move that weakens the production.

Rick Bentley's one-minute review

There's really very little new that can be said about the search for the monsters who killed and mutilated Jews during World War II. That subject has been told in countless films and TV shows. It's far more interesting to see how people deal with a lie that eventually consumes their lives like a cancer. In such stories, the power doesn't come from the chase but what you do once the race is done.

But Madden does get it right with the casting, especially the performances by Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain as Rachel, the female member of the team. Rachel not only agrees to live with a monstrous lie as the young agent, but she comes to embrace it in the passing years.

Both actresses show raw emotions at the confusion and pain they feel. These are two actors able to say so much with just a simple look.

Chastain brings a mix of strength and vulnerability to the role as the novice secret agent. She must push down her deep hatred if the mission has any chance to succeed. At the same time, she is battling with her own sexual and emotional problems. Not every actor can be both emotionally naked and hidden but Chastain turns in a riveting performance.

Helen Mirren picks up the role 31 years later and brings the same kind of strength and pain to the job. It's just a shame Madden spent less time with Mirren because he wasted one of the great actors working these days.

The ending of "The Debt" comes across as being tacked on – little too much like a cheesy horror movie. This is a movie about how being honest is the only way to go but the final scenes play with a real false note.

"The Debt" has some wonderful acting moments, but overall it's a series of missed opportunities with the story. Madden has done an acceptable job, but he should have delivered far more than that with "The Debt."